Dealing with the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall tops the Transitional Justice Commission's to-do list, commission member Yang Tsui (楊翠) said yesterday.
Removing the hall’s statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) has been prioritized as the first step toward enacting the commission’s mandate stipulated in the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例) to “remove all symbols of authoritarianism and preserve the sites of injustice,” Yang said in an exclusive interview with the Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times), adding that discussions with the Ministry of Culture regarding the move are under way.
“The commission is mulling three options for the change: relocating the statue, designating the hall as a ‘negative heritage site’ or destroying the statue altogether,” Yang said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
However, destroying the statue would create the risk that younger generations would not recognize Chiang, let alone see him as the authoritarian figure that he is, she added.
The commission is also mulling changes to the physical layout of the hall to portray a different look from the past authoritarian regime, especially in terms of historical memory, Yang said.
It would become a public space, where any visitor would immediately learn the historical truth about incidents in Taiwan and understand that Chiang was a dictator who presided over atrocities, Yang said.
They would be made to understand how the authoritarian regime operated and would be presented with memories, Yang said.
“The goal of the changes is to elucidate how Chiang should be remembered,” Yang said, adding that regardless of which solution is adopted, Chiang would not continue to be worshiped.
“The statue, enshrined within the hall and treated like a god, will either be moved or undergo changes that would remove it as an icon of authoritarian worship,” Yang said, adding that the changes would not be for tourism or commercial purposes.
Yang, a Taiwanese literature academic, is one of the commission’s three full-time members.
The act, passed in December last year, stipulates the creation of a nine-member committee of the Executive Yuan entrusted with making political archives more readily accessible, including the retrieval of those kept by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT); removing remnants of authoritarian rule; redressing miscarriages of justice; producing a historical report on the period; and promoting transitional justice.
The Democratic Progressive Party-controlled Legislative Yuan on May 8 approved all nine commission members nominated by Premier William Lai (賴清德), while the KMT and People First Party caucuses abstained.
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
RSS